The present disclosure relates generally to drawing games, and more particularly to methods of playing drawing games and electronic game systems incorporating electronic drawing input devices and adapted to interactively provide the methods of playing drawing games.
Games such as PICTIONARY® and WIN LOSE OR DRAW™ have been enjoyed for years by players in both the parlor and TV game show settings. These traditional drawing games have historically used paper tablets and writing utensils for players to sketch clues to a word or phrase in play. A teammate (or teammates) of the sketcher then attempts to guess the word or phrase in play to score points or advance on a game board. Examples of drawing games are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,927,147, 6,279,909, and 6,761,356, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.
Electronic drawing input devices have been used in conjunction with personal computers to allow users to create digital drawings. For example, keyboards, joy-sticks, mice, game-pads, and tablets may be connected to a personal computer and used to input drawings with software such as MICROSOFT® Paint. Tablets, or graphic tablets, are a type of computer input device that allows a user to create hand-drawn images. They generally consist of a flat surface upon which a user applies pressure with a stylus or other generally pointed pen-like apparatus. Examples of electronic drawing input devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,511,983, 4,758,691, 5,594,215, 5,453,758, and 5,963,199, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.
Electronic drawing input devices have been used in conjunction with personal computers and game consoles for the playing of electronic drawing games. NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM's® (NES®) PICTIONARY® released by LJN™ in 1990 and the online game iSketch™ found at http://www.isketch.net/ are two such examples.
Other examples of games utilizing electronic inputs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2003/0022717 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,178,545, 6,607,437, 6,645,070, 5,239,464, 5,967,898, 4,695,953, Re. 33,662, and 5,174,759, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.